PC Gaming News Message Board older than one year ago

Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story Director Yasumi Matsuno's episodic tactical-strategy game Unsung Story: Tale of the Guardians has been successfully funded through Kickstarter. The Kickstarter campaign earned Unsung Story developer Playdek a total of $660,126.

While the successful funding ensures Unsung Story will release for PC, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android in 2015, the campaign failed to reach the $1 million goal necessary for a PS Vita port, let alone the more expensive milestones needed for ports on PS4 and 3DS.

Prior to Unsung Story's launch in 2015, Playdek plans to release two digital card games set within the Unsung Story universe. The developer is also exploring the idea of cross-platform play in Unsung Story, but Playdek has yet to confirm the feature for any platform.

Tiny Streams has a dollop of punishing roguelike action for you this Valentine's Day. Nothing says, "I love you!" like watching someone rail against Dungeon of the Endless, the new game from Amplitude Studios, the Parisian team behind the popular strategy game Endless Space.

Jess Conditt, Joystiq's Senior Reporter, dove into the alpha version of Dungeon of the Endless to give an early view of how Amplitude approaches a more terrestrial game of strategy. A more intimate experience than Endless Space, Dungeon is no less challenging than its predecessor while retaining its hard science fiction ambiance.

Joystiq Tiny Streams air right here on Joystiq.com every Monday and Friday at 4PM EST. To check out Jess' full stream of the game, or to follow her future streams, hit up her Twitch channel. Full Joystiq Streams air on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 4PM EST. [Images: Amplitude Studios]

IT is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a DOOMBRINGER.

Hello!

My dear friends, on this Valentines Day I shall teach you the ways and arts of attracting undesirable mates from the Jane Austen dating sim Matches and Matrimony. … [visit site to read more]

Amnesia Fortnight moves pretty fast. One week ago Double Fine’s yearly-except-when-busy publicly voted game prototype jam started with 31 pitch videos. Now backers have had time to vote, that list has been whittled down to the four games that are going to be developed into a prototype. The winners? Steed, Mnemonic, Dear Leader and Adventure Time creator Pendleton “the person I would most like to meet” Ward’s Little Pink Best Buds.

I’ve embedded the video pitches for each of the selected games below. … [visit site to read more]

Intruder is a tactical multiplayer game currently in very limited alpha. I was one of the few people to get early access, and more keys are on the way. The best place to keep track of sales is the Superboss Twitter account, and I think after you hear about my experiences with it you’ll probably want to. It’s lots of fun.

There is a pivot point in most tactical multiplayer games, a moment where plans crumble and everything goes wrong, and–if everyone is friendly– it makes the game ten times better. Swat 4 had it. Rainbow Six had it. And Intruder has it. Hell, Intruder quantifies it. On the bottom left corner of the screen is a balance indicator: keep it in the high 90s and you’re a sniping, sneaking, stealth master. When you’re panicking and sprinting away from danger, which is the only time you should be running, it lowers to under 50, affecting your aim. Stand on a railing, however, and it hits zero, pitching you headfirst over the side. Intruder makes you clumsy by design.

… [visit site to read more]

The mining platformer will see its first next-gen system later this year.

Years of waiting and it comes to this. I’ve been excited about Dead State since I first became aware of it, long before I merged with the RPS Hivemind. Since then, I’ve discovered more about Doublebear’s plans for the zombie survival RPG but I hadn’t had a chance to play it until late last night when the game launched on Steam Early Access. Oh no! Early Access means the game will be crumbling, rotten and bug-ridden like the dead that inhabit it, right? Not so, says the man at Doublebear. This is an early section of the game rather than an early version of the entire game. The first seven days, to be precise, forming an opening act (though for backers and buyers only) rather than a beta build.

… [visit site to read more]

Godus, Peter Molyneux's Kickstarted world-builder, will not be "free-to-play." It will be free and you will be able to play it, but "free-to-play" doesn't apply to the monetization process Molyneux envisions for Godus, he tells Pocket Gamer.

"There cannot be a term that is less true," he says. "What we need is a new term. And that term is more like 'invest-to- play.' What really are we doing? We are tempting people to invest some of their money into a game." He doesn't break down exactly how Godus' monetization will play out, but he provides one detail: Monetization will enter the game at different points for every player, only when each one is "in the right mindset."

Molyneux wants "to tempt people to think about being proud about investing," he says. "Before we even talk about monetization, we want players to feel like Godus is a hobby, not just a game."

Molyneux is turned off by the monetization process in EA's Dungeon Keeper, a new, mobile version of the game he originally created - but he's aware that trying to change the free-to-play formula may not be profitable. "Yeah, I'm worried about that, but those risks are worth taking," he says. "We could layer in 'it takes six days to build this house', and maybe we'd make a shitload of money, but that's not my ambition for games."

I’ve watched the latest trailer for Bound By Flame six times already and I’m still not tired of it. It does everything that an RPG trailer should, describing the game’s features, and showing in-engine action to demonstrate how combat, inventory management and kissy-face interactions work. There’s even a brief overview of the plot, which involves a mercenary possessed by a fire demon waging war against (as elementary luck would have it) seven Icelords. Three more and they’d a-leaping.

Sensible as the trailer’s content is, that’s not the reason I’ve watched it so many times. It’s the voiceover. Performed by Stan S. Stanman’s less flappy-armed cousin, Dan D. Danman, it’s an absolute treat. Prepare for ‘heroric abilities’, ‘plenty of pieces of armour’ and ‘fantastical enemies [that] will try to slow you down’. I hate being postponed!

… [visit site to read more]

We take a walk through Cyrodiil, the massive siege and control player vs. player zone in the upcoming MMO.

Even in the unassailable heights of the transdimensional RPS tower/luxury cruise liner, we can’t entirely escape Flappy Bird mania. Alec wrote about the wonderful, extremely illuminating Maverick Bird from Terry Cavanagh, and John wrote about Sesame Street, because he is John. And now I too will, with a conflicted heart, contribute to the Internet’s ceaseless parade of flappy fappery. There is a Flappy Bird MMO. Personally, I’m pretty sick of Flappy Bird despite the valuable lessons that can be learned from the way everyone *crag*ed up in regard to approaching it, but this MMO is so preposterous that I couldn’t not post about it. I apologize to everyone, but most of all, I apologize to myself.

… [visit site to read more]

“Lance corporal Ivor Pettibone was the most gifted ‘skylark’ I’ve ever met. Given a quiet place to sit (inside or out, it didn’t matter) and a few minutes to himself, he could tell you, with photographic clarity, what lurked in the next village or lay beyond the next ridge. It was like having an invisible Auster on call all day every day. One damp evening in the Spring of ’45 he tried to teach me the trick. In a fragrant hayloft near Münster I learnt all about The Golden Ladder and The Silver Rope. At first neither seemed strong enough to bear my weight, but later, long after the war was over, I did manage a couple of brief but unforgettable ascents.”

… [visit site to read more]

There are 32 hours to go on the Outerlands: Season One videogame documentary Kickstarter, but it’s already surpassed its $210,000 target. Produced by the makers of The 1UP Show, it’s a six-part documentary series on the culture of videogames.

There’s a pitch video through on the Kickstarter page which explains more, and a representative short which I’ve embedded below.

… [visit site to read more]

Traditional media – film, television, and even other games – assert that murder mysteries must be these masterfully interwoven tapestries of intrigue and everything after. Perfectly placed breadcrumb trails. Curtains that pull back and slam shut at precise moments, leaving just enough to the imagination. That is why I find Noir Syndrome utterly fascinating. It hopes to procedurally generate its murder mysteries, in essence whipping up new ones on the fly without the aid of some crime-obsessed mastermind. Gameplay, meanwhile, appears to be rather sandbox-y, allowing you to sleuth and slaughter in equal measure if you so please. Vidyatron below.

… [visit site to read more]

We're offering you the chance to come and play Titanfall next week in our London offices, but you better be quick!

Are you ready to go on a HELLRAID? *guitar squeal, logo explodes into a thousand super rad monster trucks* I’m sorry. It’s just that Hellraid’s name is the most ’90s videogame title in the history of videogame titles – even more so than most games released in the ’90s. But I will say that it’s a rather apt name, given that Hellraid is a game about, you know, raiding hell. You and some friends go in with swords held aloft, and then you bop skeletons until they regain the sense to realize that their own muscle-less existences – maneuvering, cognition, combat prowess, etc – are impossible, at which point they slump into blanched piles of order and sensibility. Ah, the existential plight of the videogame skeleton. I think we’ve all been there. Video of Hellraid’s apparently quite detailed first-person combat below.

… [visit site to read more]

Hey everyone, it’s Styx! You remember Styx, don’t you? You know, from the party that one time? And when he found your lost cat, nursed it back to health, replaced its missing foot with a tinker toy, and returned it to you safe and sound? Oh wait, no, I’m thinking of someone else. This guy. Styx: Master of Shadows, you’ll remember, is a stealth-heavy RPG about a thieving goblin who was conceived while his parents listened to “Come Sail Away” on repeat or something. On one hand, a stealth role-player with a focus on vertical level design sounds interesting, but on the other, the last time Cyanide dabbled in stealth was in Of Orcs And Men’s abysmal sneaking sections. But hey, at least Styx’s first trailer looks pretty solid.

… [visit site to read more]

Ghosts’ multiplayer needs more Sean Connery, right? We inject a little silver-screen magic into the game with five fantasy care packages.

Also coming to iDevices.

Follows new 'Forge of Asgard' update.

The newest Featured Gameplay Mode adds another champ to the mix.

After almost five years, we take a second look at the world's biggest MOBA.

Hello youse.

As we build up to the announcement of my GAME OF THE YEAR 2013, I think it’s worth taking time out to think about games that get lost in the mix. By “the mix” I mean the mix of hype and excitement and drama that coincides with all these new releases and such. I don’t think this column is of any use at all if I don’t occasionally point you in the direction of good games that I think have been forgotten. And the one we’re talking about today has been forgotten, for sure. It seems that it isn’t very popular at all, and I’m not sure why. Well, I kinda am sure why.

It’s Cadwallon: City of Thieves.

… [visit site to read more]

“Assume the role of the game master,” starts the website about Arma 3‘s coming Zeus DLC. For a brief moment I pictured my face floating above the Arma 3′s Greek islands, digitally smeared like the late Sir Patrick Moore‘s.

Alas, this is even better. A new mode for Arma 3′s multiplayer where one player can act as a kind of dungeon master, using a real-time editor to craft or tweak multiplayer scenarios on the fly. It’s like having an AI director, only the director is your friend and even more malicious. … [visit site to read more]

EverQuest creator Brad McQuaid candidly discusses EverQuest's early days, and why his next MMO went so wrong.

Jazzpunk isn’t an adventure game, it’s an interactive sketch show. Its puzzles are slight and there’s little incentive to advance the scrap of a plot until each area has been scoured and sucked dry. Leave no stone unturned. Despite the setting – a techno-retro, trenchcoat-clad Cold War – the levels aren’t packed with clues, they’re packed with gags. Occasionally, a sidequest emerges from an alleyway but the solution is a punchline rather than an insight. Here’s wot I think.

… [visit site to read more]

I really don’t understand why there aren’t more hacking games. Uplink was brilliant, but it was 350 years ago now. So why aren’t we inundated with hacking simulators that will let us feel like super-cool hax0rz while we sit in our pants at the PC? Disrupt is offering such pant-sitting opportunities, as is demonstrated in the trailer below.

… [visit site to read more]

Rollers of the Realm from Phantom Compass is a late-'70s geek's dream come true. Mixing the best of rock operas by The Who and Gary Gygax's ideal Friday night in, Rollers of the Realm is a pinball RPG. That's right. Pinball is the Laverne to swords & sorcery's Shirley in this Indiecade nominee. How can Joystiq Streams resist?

It can't. That's why Richard Mitchell is going to stream an early version of the game alongside Phantom Compass' very own Tony Walsh and David Evan, the respective producer and creative director of Rollers of the Realm. As usual, Joystiq will be hanging in the chat feeding your questions directly to the developers.

Tune in to Joystiq's Twitch channel at 4PM EST today to check out the action! [Image: Phantom Compass]

It probably seemed a good idea at the time to call a game about cube-shaped planets, Planets³. Before realising that this was the internet, and people weren’t going to open Character Map every time they wanted to search for your game. So Planets3, as even developers Cubical (³ical?) are calling it now, perhaps isn’t going to win any SEO awards. But it might pick up a couple for cuteness. This is a voxel-based universe explorer, in which you fly your spaceship from planet to planet, beating up monsters, gathering tools, building houses and vehicles, and generally being very busy with stuff.

… [visit site to read more]

Wadjet Eye Games, the studio I would credit with being the forerunners of the current adventure resurgence, has announced the final Blackwell game. The Blackwell Epiphany will be the final outing for Rosa Blackwell and Joey Mallone, the intrepid alive-n-dead pair who have been guiding lost souls to the afterlife since 2006′s The Blackwell Legacy. This time out, the soul they’re trying to save is Joey’s own.

… [visit site to read more]